Clear-up session kicks off Dog Waste Awareness Day

Volunteers are pictured with Dotty the Dalmatian and Harry the Hound.

Published:16:20Monday 20 August 2018

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The Bennachie Centre Trust held a Dog Waste Awareness Day recently, with Dotty the Dalmatian and Harry the Hound helping to raise awareness of the problems caused by people who fail to pick up their dog’s waste.

With help from partners Forestry Commission Scotland, Aberdeenshire Council and the Bailies of Bennachie, the trust runs and maintain the Bennachie Centre.

Dr Pat Wightman, trust chairwoman, said: “Although most dog owners are responsible and clean up after their pets, the amount of dog poo left on paths around the Bennachie Centre seems to have increased in the last few years.

“Bennachie is a beautiful area, and it really spoils people’s enjoyment of it if they stand in dog poo. The few who don’t clean up after their dog are spoiling it for everyone else, and giving responsible dog owners a bad name.”

Apart from the unpleasant experience of standing in it, dog faeces also carry a number of diseases and parasites, and can be harmful to wildlife and farm animals as well as humans and other dogs.

Aberdeenshire Council’s Dog Warden also advised that it is against the law to leave dog faeces in a public place, such as around the Bennachie Centre, and anyone doing so could be liable to an £80 fine.

To kick off their Dog Waste Awareness campaign the trust had a mass pick-up session, to clean the area around the centre. Volunteers picked up a total of 27 kg, the weight of a large dog. As part of the campaign, signs have been placed around the area to remind people to pick up their dog waste, and bags are available free from the Bennachie Centre.